Infighting dooms Kiev government

MOSCOW -- The pro-Western government that swept to power in Ukraine's Orange Revolution collapsed Thursday when President Viktor Yushchenko fired his popular prime minister and accepted the resignations of other key political allies, struggling to quell the most serious political crisis of his 7-month-old administration.

Paralyzed with savage infighting among his supporters and stung by allegations of corruption surrounding the new democratic government, Yushchenko emptied the top ranks of his rancorous administration in an attempt to reassert his leadership of the tumultuous nation of 47 million on the eastern edge of Europe.

"The team's unity, unfortunately, has become an extremely acute problem. Interpersonal conflicts have . . . begun to affect state affairs," Yushchenko said. "It is very difficult, but today I must remove this Gordian knot."

The president said he would appoint liberal economist Yuri Yekhanurov, a longtime ally and former economy minister, to head a new government as acting prime minister.

Yulia Tymoshenko, the sacked prime minister whose popularity has been one of Yushchenko's most valuable weapons, signaled that she will join the opposition in the March 2006 parliament elections that will determine whether the pro-reform team can hold on to power and continue Ukraine's drive toward joining the European Union.

The firings followed months of increasingly uneasy relations between the president and Tymoshenko, whose populist moves to raise pensions and salaries, tax businesses, reverse shady privatization deals and control gasoline prices have been blamed for stifling economic growth and undermining Yushchenko's free-market policies.

Soaring food and energy prices have led to widespread public disenchantment, fueled by the resignation of two top Yushchenko aides who claimed the president had allowed the new government to become tainted by the presence of several corrupt senior advisers.